Black Sabbath announce intimate UK show – ticket details

The band, who will headline this summer’s Download Festival along with The Prodigy and Metallica over the weekend of June 8-10, will play a small show at Birmingham’s O2 Academy on May 19 to warm up for the festival.

The show will be the metal legends’ first since they reunited with their original line-up late last year, and may see them preview some of the new material they have spent the last nine months working on.

Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi is currently undergoing treatment for lymphoma and, as a result, will not take part in a large chunk of the band’s summer tour dates. Shows across Europe, which were scheduled to be Black Sabbath shows, have been replaced by ‘Ozzy & Friends’ gigs.

The shows will see frontman Ozzy Osbourne joined by special guests including former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash, Geezer Butler and Zakk Wylde. Iommi will, however, play at Download and at next month’s Birmingham gig.

Although Iommi will play, there is still no word on whether the band’s estranged drummer Bill Ward will be part of the line-up for the show. The drummer had previously revealed he was unhappy with the contract for the band’s new album and world tour and claimed he would not take part in the new album sessions and shows if a ‘fair agreement’ was not met.

As a result of this, the remaining members of the band vowed to carry on without him. They have yet, however, to announce a replacement for Ward.